About Me

Altering books can be a great adventure. There are no rules, no rights and wrongs. There are infinite ways to use all your favorite art supplies and skills to alter an old book. I hope you visit often. Please feel free to use any ideas and tricks you pick up here. I do this for fun, not for profit!One of my best tricks is - if you mess up a page, tear it out! Start a new page. That's "my way".

I recently added the mail art component here. What could be easier or more fun than making a post card and sending it off to a friend? Or to a stranger?

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Using what you have - Science Slave

It's surprising how much art we can make without buying a whole lot of supplies. A friend gave away some 1950's Mechanics Illustrated and Popular Mechanics magazines yesterday, and I brought a few home. Mainly to reminisce - my brother subscribed when we were young, and I read them too. Anyway, I immediately saw a couple images and backgrounds that I could use to rework a piece I'd done last year. There is no reason this could not have been done in an altered book. It started to be a practice piece, but I liked it so much I finished and framed it. I cut the hand out of the earlier work and put a few layers of mat board behind it to raise it above the surface of this piece. Don't limit your practice to your practice book. Try things out whenever inspiration strikes or you find yourself with something interesting to try. Trying them in your practice book is always a good idea.